Community Service

With the support and efforts of Roots and Shoots and the Belmont Day community, the goals of having a Belmont Day team riding, increasing awareness, and raising funds for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute were all accomplished.

Last year, when some of us were in fifth grade, we read an article on a very endangered species of tigers from Sumatra. We learned that there are only about 350 Sumatran tigers left in the world. From there, we further researched these animals and hoped that we could help raise awareness and money for them. We shared our concerns and ideas with the other members of Roots & Shoots, a middle school community service club, to get more support and ideas. We put everyone’s ideas together and Tiger Week was born! Tiger Week will begin on February 23.

Last week, the Roots and Shoots club volunteered at the Belmont Special Olympics Basketball Free Throw Contest. There were 14 volunteers from fifth to eighth grade. We all had so much fun cheering on the players! We counted the athletes' baskets and reported them to a desk where it was recorded, as well as caught rebounds. There were 30 athletes that we helped, and this was Roots and Shoots' fourth year volunteering at this event.

Fifth grade is organizing a clothing drive for Cradles to Crayons called Share the Warmth. Cradles to Crayons is a non-profit organization that provides basic needs for children from birth to 12 years of age. Share the Warmth will run from Tuesday, November 25 to Friday, December 19. You can drop off your donations in the boxes in the front lobby.

The Belmont Day School Roots and Shoots club, a middle school club that helps support charities and communities around the world, recently held a bake sale at Friday Night Lights. The members of the club and some faculty members baked sweets to sell. Students sold baked goods and ended the evening with a grand total of… $700.00 exactly! The money will be donated to the MSPCA, an organization trying to help prevent animal cruelty. Thank you to everyone in the Belmont Day community who supported our bake sale and the MSPCA!

A collection of 20 Belmont Day students, parents, and faculty volunteered at Gaining Ground in Concord, an organic farm that donates all of its produce for hunger relief. Beets, carrots, and leeks were harvested, sorted, washed, and packed for transport. The asparagus patch was cut down and cleared, and other garden beds were weeded and raked. Heirloom pinto beans and black beans were shelled and sorted.

We still have room for two events to celebrate Farm to School Month. Belmont Day is participating in a number of ways—we are partnering with local farms, cultivating our own school garden, highlighting local foods in our lunch program, and hosting two family events.